The timing of the attacks coincided with the reporting for a Times investigation, published online on Oct. 25, that found that the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, had accumulated a fortune worth several billion dollars through business dealings.

The Times says that through cyber espionage, the hackers were hoping to find human sources of information for the aforementioned article.

Oddly enough though, the journalists say all the information was in Chinese public records.